Process of treating ores



June 9, 1925.

1,541,292 J. T. TERRY PROCESS OF TREATING RES Filed oct. 29, 1924Patented June 9, 1925.

AUNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE.

JOSEPH T. TERRY, OF ALHAMBRA, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMESE. LACY AND ONE-EIGHTH T RICHARD H. LACY, BOTH OF LOS ANGELES, CALI-FORNIA.

PROCESS OF TREATING ORES.

Application me@ october 29, 1924. serial No. 746,525.'

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH T. TERRY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Alhambra, in the county of Los Angeles t and State ofCalifornia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes ofTreating Ores, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a process of treatl0 ing ores, and especiallyores containing copper other than copper sulphide, such as coppercarbonate, with or without other metals.

It is an object of this invention to provide l5 a simple, etcient andeconomical method or process of recovering copper from ores, making useof vacetylene to convert the copper and silver, if any silver bepresent, to acetylene derivatives, and subjecting the mass to a dotationprocess to recover a concentrate.

My invention consists in the steps of the process hereinafter describedand claimed. In the accompanying drawing I have 7 shown diagrammaticallyan apparatus suitable for carrying out my process.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents a ball mill suitable forcrushing the ore, having a discharge outlet 2 through which a finelyground pulp may be discharged to a trough or launder 3 for conveyance toan agitation tank 4, provided with a suitable stirrer 5, mounted ona'vertical shaft 5lL and driven by gears 6 from any suitablev source ofpower.

An acid container 7 provided with avalve controlled pipe 71 suppliesacid to the pulp in trough 3. A discharge pipe 8 leads from the tanletto a closed'rectangular reaction lgtank 9 provided with a receivingfunnel 10 and a series ofstaggered baffles a, b, c, d, e, l7, and g, soarranged thatthe flowing Apulp travels in a downward and upward coursethrough the chambers 11, 12, 13 and 14. Alternate baffles b, lel, and7-, are of diminishing'height to cause a difference in hydrostatic headand to facilitate the iow of thepulp through th-reaction tank 9. Adischarge outlet 15 leads from reaction tank 9 to a standard type ofdotation cell 16, provided with a concentrate overflow take-off 17, anda residuedischarge outlet 18.` Disposed above the. fiotation cell 16 isacontainer 23 provided with a discharge pipe 24 for feeding a suitabledotation-reagent into vthrough the nozzle 21. The baffles c and e vareprovided at their u per ends with openings c1 and e1, permitting theacetylene gas the pulp entering the flotation cell. 25 is a stirrermechanism on a vertical shaft 251 Operated by gears 26. Y

An acetylene gas generator 19 is provided to supply acetylene to chamber11 of the tank 9 by means of a valve controlled pipe 20, terminating ina nozzle 21 near the bottoml of chamber 11 between the baies'a and b. Acalcined lime container -22 supplies calcium oxide by- Ineans o'r' aconveyer 27 v to the funnel 10. I

In carrying out my process for example, ore containing copper or copperand silver, with or without other -metals suchas iron, is put into theball mill 1, where it is ground to a suitable ypulp in the presenceof'water. When ground to the proper degree it is discharged throughoutlet 2 intoI launder 3v and mixed with sulphuric acid from container 7Y and delivered to agitation tank 4, inwhich the ore particles aremaintained in a constant state of suspension assuring intimate contactof all of the metalliferousparticles with the solvent. The pulpcontaining dissolved copper and possibly other metals in solution isdischarged fromA tank 4l into funnel 10 leading to reaction tank-9. Herey -calcium oxide is added from the container 22 in sufficient amount torender the pulp slightlyk alkaline, thereby causing precipitation ofmetals in solution as hydroxides, in accordance with .the followingequation:

-Cu SO4-I-CaO-f-H2OzC'aSO4-I-Cu (0H)2- f In the reaction tank` 9 thecopper hydroxide suspended in the ore pulp comes in contact, during itspassage, with acetylene A supplied from the acetylene generator 19 1 topass from chamber -11 to chambers 12 and 13. A chemical reaction takesplace as follows:

'This reaction-may' be complete or partial, in fact, only a superficialAlilming is neces'- sary 'for the success of my process.

LFrom the reaction tank 9 `the pulp ypasses 105 through pipe 15 toflotation cell 16 where it receives l, an addition of a suitable reagentsuch as a mixture of wood creos'ote and cresylic acid supplied fromcontainer;v The pulpis subjected'tootatin treatment 1.10

Well known to those skilled in the art, and a concentrate is recoveredas a froth overflow at 17 While the tailings residues pass out throughdischarge opening 18.

In place of calcium oxide, calcium carbonate oralkali metal carbonate orsponge iron may be used.

The process is based on my discovery that metal acetylene compounds,such as cop er acetylide and silver' acetylide, have an aigriity forsuitable oils and for Ylotation reagents. Also on the observation thatcopper, silver' and mercury compounds in precipitated form, other thansulphides, are

rapidly transformed to acetylene derivatives by contact with acetyleneand rendered susceptible to .flotation concentration. When copper isprecipitated fromy sulphuric acid solutions With sponge iron completeremoval of copper is not attained, due to resolution of copper by ironsalts produced in chemical reaction.

As a corollary or subsidiary'to my main process, I may treatthe residueor the original pulp by suitable method of concentration as gravitytreatment, flotation before or after the solution of copper to recoverthe naturally `occurring metal sulphides susceptible to such recovery.

It Will be understood by those skilled Vin the art that -various changesin the construction of the apparatus and in the steps of .the

process may be made Without de arting rom the spirit of my invention, asc aimed.

I claim: A l

. 1. A process lof treating metalliferous ores, comprising subjectingthe ground ore to the action -of a solvent of metals, precipitatingdissolved metals in the pulp as insoluble compounds other, thansulphides, treatingthe pulp with acetylene to form metal acetylide atleast in part, and separating by the flotation process a concentratecontaining metal acetylides.

2. A process of treating copper ore, comprising subjecting the groundore to the action of a solvent of copper, precipitating 'treating thepulp with acetylene to form metal acetylide at least in part, andseparating by the flotation process a concentrate containing metalacetylides.

4A process of treating copper ore, comprising subjecting the groundcopper ore to the action of sulphuric acid forming copper sulphate,adding calcium hydroxide to pre.

cipltate the copper in the form of hydroxide the pulp, treating the pulpwith acetylene to form copper acetylide atV least in part, andrecovering a copper concentrate by the otation process. 1 -AIn'testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

J. T. TERRY.

